Frankly, 8th is quite accurate. We haven't beaten any of the teams ahead of us in years except for Jamaica, who've made the final of the last two Gold Cups. Even El Salvador beat us just last Fall.
Currently the CMNT has great potential, but in terms of actual results we simply haven't done anything to deserve a better ranking.

I remember this very differently than you, then. Because I remember us not getting to Germany, because the team and coach sucked at soccer and made me throw my beer at the wall screaming in frustration as Carlos Ruiz castrated us in Vancouver in front of a pro Guatemalan crowd. Would Radz have helped? I dunno, maybe a little. But I'd argue that team was never going to Germany anyway, because aside from being abysmal in all of their home matches in a very winnable group, Jack Warner was making damned sure T&T were going instead. The less said about the Yallop era, the better.

He didn't need to earn it, he's been one of our most consistent starters for years and has been excellent for the NT lately. He may be 33, but he hasn't shown any indication that he's too old for the national team yet.

One thing I will say is that I will be way more impressed with Herdman if we can come out of these qualifying round games with 3 wins and a number of young prospects capped. Not that either of those things are spectacular individually - but it is the sort of thing we need to see systematically pursued to help ensure our progress forward. The three wins is obviously the primary objective, but with generally limited opportunities to cap the young guys overall, these matches are an ideal opportunity - and this kind of frequency (against beatable opponents) will only occur this year.

For individual players i tend to agree. Transfermarket measures players over all value which factors their age as well as skill. I think we all could argue that Atiba may be just a good player now as he was 4 years ago when his value was three times higher. Basically it looks at players as long term investments.

For individual players i tend to agree. Transfermarket measures players over all value which factors their age as well as skill. I think we all could argue that Atiba may be just a good player now as he was 4 years ago when his value was three times higher. Basically it looks at players as long term investments.

You know who should really hang it up, TOM BRADY!! That goof is 40..I know its my opinion, and we all have opinions, and it might happen or not but he could get injured and i think he might maybe could play another year or two but maybe he would be better to hang up his boots, unless he doesnt which is cool I guess we'll see.

I think an underlying problem is that soccer aesthetics don't translate well at lower levels of quality. So much of what makes the game fun to watch at a very high level is the complex movement, team interplay and technique that takes a lot of training, money and talent to develop. This really degrades quickly, even to point where the average mid-table EPL game isn't that much fun to watch, and trying to appreciate a Carl Robinson Whitecaps game, for example, is an exercise in masochism. I made it about ten minutes into their recent match against RSL before turning it off.
Compare to baseball or lacrosse. A minor league baseball game (e.g. Vancouver Canadians) isn't that different from a major league game as you can't really distinguish and 85 MPH fastball from a 100 MPH one.
Of course, the other big selling point for soccer is atmosphere and community, which is where you get successes like Cincinatti or Detroit City and I'm sure what the league is banking on.

Nope. I get pissed off in one situation: when guys very clearly Canadian raised and trained, growing up playing for Canadian clubs, defect. Guys like Hargreaves and, it seems, Tabla.
When guys have pretty much equal ties to countries and choose a better one I understand even if it frustrates me. Jonathan DeGuzman for example was largely trained Dutch, the only thing that pissed me off was I felt he strung us along. If Tomori chooses England it will just make sense, he is not really Canadian.
When guys have very little chance at making our squad and choose another country I also understand, it is basically the reverse-Arfield. Emery Welshman going to Guyana is barely a blip on my radar because I don't think he gets a shot here. Could we get burned sometime if someone like McKendry ends up being a late bloomer and turns into a Premier League player after he joins NZ? I guess, but chances are pretty slim.
But if Tabla goes to Ivory Coast as it sounds like I won't have much use for him.

10 years ago our team probably had a slight edge over today’s squad (thinking back to our roster v Jamaica in 2008) but we have more youth now and better depth, there was a huge drop off back then from top leagues in Europe to guys playing USL1 for example we’d have to go call a guy like Cann if McKenna was unavailable or go from Stalteri to Braz. I think the style of player is a bit different and hopefully in our favour.